Tapping Growth In India's Aerospace, Defence And Automotive Sectors

ANSYS Software Private Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based ANSYS Inc. It specialises in engineering simulation and has a portfolio of fast, accurate and reliable simulation tools. Founded in 1970, ANSYS employs almost 3,000 professionals, more than 700 of them with PhDs in engineering fields.

Rafiq Somani, a Computer Science graduate from Bombay University, is the company's country manager for India, ASEAN and ANZ. He shared his thoughts with BW Businessworld about the simulation industry in India and providing solutions to aerospace, defence and automotive sectors.

What are the solutions ANSYS is providing to the aerospace and defence and automotive sectors?
For more than four decades, ANSYS has been helping the industry’s public and private-sector leaders to accomplish their most ambitious engineering goals via simulation. Within aerospace and defence, ANSYS customers include the top five aircraft manufacturers, the top 10 defence contractors, the top 10 space agencies, and the top eight electronics manufacturers in aerospace and defence worldwide.

Leading companies around the world leverage the power of ANSYS software to develop next-generation aircraft, space vehicles, and cutting edge technologies such as unmanned systems using multi-disciplinary optimization and model-based engineering. For the automotive industry, ANSYS provides comprehensive solutions to major business initiatives currently underway in the automotive industry such as fuel economy, electric vehicles, and managing complexity of electronics. ANSYS solutions enable automotive companies to build a full system virtual models of the vehicle that includes 3D, 1D design performance of the parts, and system integration at sub-system.

How has ANSYS helped Indian aerospace and defence sector and automotive sector in evolving?
The aerospace industry in India is witness to a growing commercial aviation market combined with large defence investments in the world. Major global aerospace companies have already made their presence here for their R&D activities. Domestic government organizations have under their belt a number of prospective projects to help meet the country’s aerospace demands. And we are working with all major Indian aerospace and defence companies and R&D labs within India. The number of aeronautics projects running in India, have outnumbered other aerospace projects across the globe. The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is another segment experiencing rapid growth in the Indian market. The Indian space industry has already reached heights of success with the Mars orbiter mission.

Today’s automotive players face stiff competition in the market. To succeed, companies are relying heavily on R&D efforts, which serve as a blueprint towards successful product performance. Within the Indian context one of the key parameters on which various original manufacturers develop their products is fuel efficiency. Furthermore, the vehicle emission norms are also getting stringent as we look to Euro six norms. Advanced engineering simulation software from ANSYS supports development of revolutionary new products and processes at the heart of this transformation — and we stand ready to help your business emerge as an innovation leader.

What are the major transformations happening in these two sectors?
For aerospace and defence, from developing complex software that controls brakes to understanding ice formation on wings, ANSYS customers’ are balancing cost and time concerns with the most important engineering priority of all: protecting passengers. By creating and verifying their innovations in a safe virtual world, these A&D leaders can have the utmost confidence that their designs will deliver the expected benefits, while also supporting the secure, comfortable transportation of passengers. Other ANSYS customers are exploring unmanned vehicles designed to travel to far-off planets, creating electronically invisible surveillance and reconnaissance technologies, and otherwise moving the industry in new and unexpected directions.

The automotive industry is faced with growing fuel costs and environmental concerns, vehicle manufacturers are re-engineering all vehicle systems — from aerodynamics, engine and transmission to vehicle body, passenger comfort systems and electrical and electronic systems. Automakers are continually identifying value-added high-tech functionalities that capture consumer imagination. All products must perform reliably the first time, and every time. So engineers leverage the power of engineering simulation to address these and other challenges in a fast, cost-effective, risk-free manner. ANSYS solutions enable automotive engineering teams to develop ground-breaking end-to-end designs while delivering a high level of product reliability and integrity.

ANSYS empowers its customers by reducing product prototypes, enabling the customer to get the product faster to the market. Implementing simulation helps explore multiple variations of the product while saving time and cost.

How do you think simulation will change the dynamics of aerospace and defence in future? What role will ANSYS play in it?
ANSYS is uniquely positioned to offer the aerospace and defence industry physics based simulation solutions that are capable of addressing the entire breadth of applications without compromising the three critical factors to A&D: Accuracy, Robustness and Speed. This breadth and depth of capability enables the aerospace and defence industry to meet with confidence the challenges of evolution in technology today and the revolution in the technology of tomorrow. Leaders in the A&D industry focus on process and people as much as tools and the ANSYS simulation framework support, training and services are recognized as key enablers for maximizing the return on investment in physics based engineering simulation.

Do you think India will be the next Innovation Superpower?
India is one of the fastest growing markets for ANSYS along with Korea and China. With the Indian government’s "Make in India" campaign taking off, R&D in Defence and Aerospace is all set to take off. India is positioned well, provided we are able to capitalize on this huge opportunity in the right way.